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Margaret Carroux

Margaret Carroux (née Bister) (May 31, 1912- July 22, 1991) was a german translator. She translated many french and english literary works into german, sometimes under the pseudonyms Emmi Heimann or Martin Boor. Her most famous translation is that of The Lord of the Rings (published as Der Herr der Ringe, 1969/1970), which she translated with the poetess Ebba-Margareta von Freymann.

The "Carroux-Translation" of The Lord of the Rings was the first german translation of the book. A second was made by Wolfgang Krege, published in the year 2000.

Margaret Carroux tried to capture the literary style of Tolkien's original work, to create the same atmosphere in the german version. During her translation work, she used the Guide to the Names in The Lord of the Rings. In the original books, all characters differ from each other through different levels of language, from the formal archaic speech to the everyday speech. Some critics of Carroux accused her of standardising this linguistic features too much, for a nearly constant old language-style. But many fans like her old-fashioned rendering, because it follows the original text's flow and style very closely.

Carroux and Tolkien

In September1967 Margaret Carroux contected J. R. R. Tolkien about the publisher Rayner Unwin, because of her translation of The Lord of the Rings. Carroux sent to Tolkien her translation of Leaf by Niggle to give Tolkien the chance to evaluate her work as a translator of his literary works. She asked Tolkien for a meeting, too. But Tolkien was ill at that time and so the meeting took place three months later on the 13 December1967 in Oxford, in early december Carroux had already sent her about hundred translated pages to Tolkien. After there meeting in Oxford, they corresponded with each other because of some problems, Carroux had during her translation, especially with the poems. Carroux sent to him some scripts and Tolkien praised and elated her.

I should certainly not have taken the trouble that I took with your speci­mens, if I had not felt that you had the sympathy and understanding required, and only needed a little help and some encouragement to per­severe in what is a very difficult task. (abridgement from Tolkien's letter to Carroux (September 29, 1968))

In the same letter Tolkien talks about his scrupulosity, if a a co-translator, for example a lyricist, would read the text intensely enough, to understand the exact meaning or importance of the poems. Because of this, Tolkien extended to Carroux more help with the poems.